


Better than Ice Cream

by Gabna43



Series: What She's Thinking [3]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, New Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:48:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22852759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gabna43/pseuds/Gabna43
Summary: Ava's thoughts when she and Sara start dating.Set during/after 3.12 [The Curse of the Earth Totem] and before/during 3.13 [No Country for Old Dads].Special thanks to SwanQueenGranger for beta reading and for the inspiration.
Relationships: Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe
Series: What She's Thinking [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1633009
Comments: 10
Kudos: 112





	1. Chapter 1

The low whine of the engines was the first thing that registered in her waking consciousness. This was quickly followed by the unusual realization that someone was draped across her, as she felt skin on skin the length of her body. A smile slid onto her face, and she wrapped her arm tighter around the woman she held.

Which was immediately answered by a light, quick lick to one of her breasts, making her yelp in surprise. A soft chuckle followed.

Ava’s smile grew. “Good morning to you, too.”

The captain answered by snuggling down further into Ava. “Yes. Yes, it is.”

Gideon, hearing Sara’s voice, increased the lighting in the room slightly, following her morning protocols, which gave Ava a better opportunity to appreciate the lithe form of the woman with whom she had shared an eventful first date the night before.

Blonde hair spread across a sculpted back and perfectly defined shoulders and onto her own chest. Her eyes traveled down Sara’s back, noting the scars, some of which she could not decipher from what kind of injury they had occurred, and toward the curve of the extremely fine ass partially, and frustratingly, hidden by the sheets.

Ava was not one to objectify women, but Sara’s ass was one of the finest she’d ever seen or appreciated while watching someone walk, fight, or run. Not that she would admit to having done so – frequently – for weeks now.

They had spent hours exploring each other, discovering sensitive spots and preferences, but Ava felt like she had barely begun to appreciate the body or the person with whom she had woken up.

Sara shifted slightly to get more comfortable but made no move to detangle herself from Ava; neither was in a particular hurry to get out of bed.

Of their own volition, Ava’s fingertips began to trace light patterns on Sara’s back, across her shoulders, down her spine. Eventually, her second hand joined the first in its exploration and traced past Sara’s hips, then cupped her ass and pulled her closer.

A moan answered her action.

The logical part of her brain kept reminding her that she needed to get up and out of the Waverider before her morning-after presence became the bfd she suspected it would become, followed by Sara getting to experience hours of endless razzing from her team.

Sara rolled her hips gently against her, and Ava fought to maintain any coherent thought at all. She felt out of breath, as if she couldn’t get enough of her new lover.

The Legend lifted off of her chest slightly and looked down at Ava with a lazy, content, but very much interested glint in her eyes.

She tilted her head a bit, just looking at Ava. Then she leaned forward and kissed her lightly.

“Ava?” She whispered between kisses, the intensity growing.

“Mhm?” Sara’s lips caressing hers made her feel things she didn’t even know how to describe.

“Stop thinking.” She slid her tongue across Ava’s already-tender bottom lip, followed with a tiny nibble.

Ava readily closed off her mind as she flipped them both over and kissed Sara hard.

She _was_ an order follower.

Their laughter echoed in the Captain’s quarters, and Gideon dimmed the lights once more.

The AI also took the liberty of shutting off all incoming transmissions from within the Waverider and from the Time Bureau and blocked off the hallways immediately beyond Sara’s door.

Several extremely enjoyable hours later, Ava woke again from a short nap, this time greeted with Sara’s partially dressed back facing her.

She reached out to run a finger down the back muscles, something she suspected might fast become a favorite pastime.

“Where you going?” she murmured.

The Captain glanced over her shoulder as she reached for a nearby black tank top.

“Mission debrief with Mick and Amaya.” Ava nodded once in understanding. “Gideon has already delayed it twice, and I don’t think I can get away with asking for another few hours.”

Now dressed, she turned fully to face Ava. “Even though I really, really want to stay in this bed with you.”

She reached out and held Ava’s hand, entwining their fingers. They just looked at each other for a few moments, appreciating the time they had shared together and what they were discovering between them.

“What are you up to today?”

Ava stretched and sat up, not loosening their joined hands.

“Well, I have no clothes other than a ruined Bureau shirt and an extremely wrinkled suit.” At the pointed eyebrow raise, she rushed to add, “Not that I am complaining.”

Sara merely chuckled.

“So, I’ll probably start there. I need to address the whole Rip situation, which has caused a mountain of paperwork.” Sara rolled her eyes. “Eventually, I need to head back to my apartment and start planning out my week.” The captain brought their joined hands to her lips for a quick kiss, and then let Ava’s hand go.

“Sounds like a good idea. Feel free to use the shower and anything you need from here…” Sara’s voice trailed off a bit. “Can I call you later?”

Ava wasn’t positive, but her voice sounded a little unsure.

“Please do, Ms. Lance.”

Sara smirked and pushed herself off the bed. She moved toward the entrance to her quarters but stopped at the door, turning back.

“Ava, I had a really good time last night. I want to see you again. _Soon_.”

The agent blushed a little and nodded. So… _that_ unspoken question was answered for her.

“You will, Sara.” The captain shot her a 5000-watt smile and headed out to her debrief.

Ava sank back into the bed and sighed a deep and happy sigh. What a wonderful first date. She couldn’t stop smiling.

If someone had told her three months ago that she would wake up beside a lover and that lover would be Sara Lance, she would have scornfully scoffed.

  
Ava had sworn off dating early in her Bureau career. She simply didn’t have the time or the energy to maintain a healthy relationship. She’d had a handful of weekend flings, usually when having to attend boring bureau trainings or conventions in other cities, but those left her feeling empty. Since those early days, she hadn’t bothered, especially once she had been promoted to Assistant Director.

She hadn’t been looking for someone to date when the Legends strolled their incredibly cocky selves into her office lobby, but there was something about Sara from the very first moment they interacted. The woman got under her skin, and Ava wasn’t exactly sure when that had become not such a bad thing.

She smirked at the memory of pulling a gun on Sara. Knowing what she knew now, she was lucky Sara hadn’t body slammed her in front of the entire Bureau. At the time, she thought Rip was protecting the Legends. Was _that_ wrong.

And now she was Sara Lance’s lover.

Ava giggled, shaking her head at the absurdity, the improbability of that fact.

She had things to do at the Bureau, in spite of it being a weekend.

She had left her office rather abruptly the night before in the midst of trying to track Rip. The notifications about the burgeoning anachronism in the Bahamas pushed her from being merely annoyed at Sara for leaving mid-date (and for not mentioning that apparently the Legends were romping around the timeline Captain-less) to being angry enough to confront the Waverider’s Captain…immediately.

Ava had not hesitated to stalk through the portal onto the bridge of the time ship. She felt she was owed some kind of explanation. She had been enjoying their evening, especially appreciating Sara’s _verrry_ appealing short red dress, only to have it yanked away from her without warning. It had pissed her off, but it had also hurt.

At the time, she had been relieved to switch into Agent Sharpe mode and head to Bureau with Gary instead of having to worry about what had happened to make Sara abandon their date.

But the longer she sat in her office trying to write a report for Bennet about Rip’s break-in and listening to her agents bicker as they hit dead end after dead end, the more she couldn’t help but think about Sara. She kept checking her phone, waiting and hoping that the Legend would text her, would reach out to her. The screen had remained blank.

She didn’t want to be the one to text or call. Sara probably wasn’t the type to like someone who was needy, and she didn’t want to appear to be overly concerned. They both knew the other was on-call 24/7, and she tried really hard not to jump to conclusions about why Sara had left.

But when hours had passed without any contact, both her anger and her hurt increased.

The third notification she received that a 1717 Bahamas anachronism was increasing in scale pushed her up and out of her office and storming onto the Waverider….

into a fiery argument and an even fierier first kiss.

They had quickly dealt with Blackbeard and then talked it out. Ava’s anger had simmered down once she had an explanation, and her helping contain the pirate mess had certainly relieved some of her stress.

She did almost take a cutlass hilt to the head at one point because she had been admiring Sara fight off several men with a damn concert flute and had momentarily lost her spatial awareness. Sara had kicked the pirate away from Ava before she even had a chance to register his movement and then the woman had winked at her, seemingly aware of what had her distracted.

Their later conversation over rum floats had not been lengthy, but their discussion had confirmed that Sara was still interested in seeing where this thing between them could lead.

While she rarely ended up in bed after a first date, she did not want to wait for a second date before being with Sara and had not been shy about communicating that desire to the Captain. Ava was not one to hesitate when action was needed.

So here she lay in Sara’s bed, thoroughly ravished, sore, and quite happy. But, because she was Ava, her mind was not going to remain quiet for long.

She needed to get moving. She sat up and reached for her time courier. She had missed several messages, most all from Gary, but nothing appeared to be urgent.

She pushed out of bed and began looking for her strewn clothes, smiling as she found several white buttons dotting the floor. Sara had not been especially patient to touch her once they had reached her room.

The ruined shirt itself, however, was neatly folded in a stack with her work suit. Beside the stack was a pair of jeans and a black camisole, as well as a pair of black fuzzy socks with tiny white-blue dots on them…was that the Time Bureau logo?! Where the hell had she found these?

Ava laughed out loud. Sara was thoughtful and so very funny.

The clothing and the socks were the correct size, not that, that surprised Ava in the least.

She pulled on the cami and picked up the jeans. Sitting on the chair under the jeans was one single red rose.

She sighed happily. Apparently, Sara was also a romantic, which given the woman’s history that Ava knew was simply stunning.

Ava felt…respected. Valued. Seen.

Different from the day before in some undefinable way.

She finished getting dressed, choosing to rock the fuzzy socks instead of putting her boots back on.

What a hell of a first date. She truly couldn’t wait to see what happened on the second date, and there _would be_ a second date, an idea which did something funny to her stomach.

She picked up her clothes, boots, and the rose, checked the room, making sure she hadn’t accidentally left anything behind, and opened a portal into her Star City apartment.


	2. Chapter 2

A few hours later, she sat comfy on her living room sofa watching House Hunters reruns. She’d showered, running the water as hot as possible to help stretch out her sore muscles. Her body was letting her know how far outside of her normal activities she’d gone last night, not that she had an ounce of regret.

Ava decided it was completely normal for her to put the black jeans and cami back on after her shower. She’d only been wearing them for a few minutes in her brief walk from the Waverider into her master bathroom. Her wanting to wear them had nothing to do with the knowledge that Sara had replicated them just for her with her comfort in mind.

She chuckled again glancing down at the logo-ed fuzzy socks. She loved this playful side of Sara, one she was sure that only her sister, the Legends, and perhaps a handful of Team Arrow had ever seen.

Sara was far and away a different person from what the bare, administrative, sometimes harsh words in the Bureau file presented her to be. Ava was trying to make sense of the discrepancy between that narrative and her own view of Sara. Reconciling the woman with whom she had woken up to the vigilante dubbed the Black Canary, a League Assassin was disconcerting. The contradiction could not be more perplexing, or, if Ava was honest, more intriguing.

It left her wanting to know more, to learn more. As a seasoned investigator, she wanted to keep discovering clues and to fit the pieces of the puzzle together until she could ascertain a more complete portrait of her lover. Sara was likely the most complex person she had ever met, and Ava suspected she had barely begun to even scratch the surface.

Their date had not been what she was expecting for several reasons, but she had to admit to herself that her expectations of Sara may have been unfairly curbed beforehand. The woman with whom she had shared the night before had not behaved as if she were a mistress of the one-night stand. Yes, the sex had been amazing, some of the best in her life.

_Sara’s fingers spread her open, a gentle kiss on the inside of her thigh, a soft moan of appreciation at the first taste of her._

Ava flushed. The memory made her instantly wet. She shifted, suddenly less comfortable on the sofa. 

Beyond that, though, Sara had seemed genuinely interested in Ava, in her thoughts and feelings. Sara had been the one to communicate that she wanted to spend more time with the Time Bureau agent. She had made sure, in several ways, to let Ava know that their time together was not just about the sex.

Those small gestures had mattered to Ava. _A lot_.

She wondered how Sara’s debrief had gone. She knew she’d get the report on Monday, but hearing it from Sara was much more fun than simply reading the official report. For both of their sakes (and Ava’s sanity), the reports usually offered a heavily redacted version of what had occurred on the missions. The Legend’s Captain knew that many in the Bureau considered them liabilities, so she avoided giving the naysayers any ammunition.

Since Vinland, though, Sara would sometimes send her a separate, non-official, encrypted-by-Zari report. These reports were light, humorous observations that Sara could not get away with noting elsewhere, mostly her honest thoughts, her feelings about what had happened, and her discussion regarding how and why her team’s plan had failed spectacularly at their first attempts to resolve the issue.

Ava viewed these reports as Sara sharing a part of herself beyond being Captain, and these glimpses into her as a person past the title and the sexy White Canary outfit made it easy for Ava to say “yes” when Sara had casually asked her out on a date, seemingly out of the blue, in the middle of a recent jumpship conversation.

Her video console began to chime, and she noted with delight that the incoming call was from the subject of her thoughts.

“Hey.” Looking at Sara immediately brought back more flashes of their night together, and Ava felt her face grow warm.

“Hey you.”

Mm. That smile. That damn smile was gonna get Ava in **so much** trouble.

“Whatcha up to?”

“Oh, you know the usual Saturday evening for me. Save the world, chase down time bandits, yell at recruits, basically be a bad bitch.” Ava deadpanned.

Sara laughed.

“That’s a lot to do from your living room, Miss Sharpe.”

“Well, it sounds a lot more thrilling than ‘I spent hours writing a security report and now I’m watching a House Hunter marathon on HGTV.’ I have to maintain some of my mystery.” 

Sara smiled at her. “Is the episode you’re watching any good? My favorites are the ones where Americans look for houses internationally and are so obnoxiously spoiled that the realtor wants to punch them.”

Ava laughed, hesitated, and then tilted her head in thought. “You know, I’m not sure about this episode. It’s been paused for a while.”

“You are just sitting in your living room staring at a paused tv?” Sara was bemused.

“Yep, that’s me. Life of the party.”

“So…though you are clearly very busy right now…do you maybe want to join me for dinner?” Sara had that damned twinkle in her eye that Ava knew she could not easily resist.

“Tonight? Right now?”

“Yep.”

Ava glanced down. “Well, I’m not dressed to go out, so it’s gonna have to be a low-key dinner.”

“How does the Waverider galley sound? Everyone is busy or out for the night themselves. I have this big ol’ timeship all to myself.” She blinked innocently several times.

“Oh really?” Ava chuckled.

“Mmm hmm. Imagine the trouble I can get into without proper supervision, Agent Sharpe.” Sara’s voice slid into a seductive register.

“We can’t have that, now can we.”

“Nope. I need… _close_ …personal observation.” Ava couldn’t help but blush. Just from a suggestive conversation with the woman she was already hot and bothered.

“Okay.”

“Ok?”

“Yes, okay. Let me freshen up and I’ll be right over.”

“Sounds good. I’ll get Gideon working on dinner. Oh, and Ava? You definitely won’t need pjs, but maybe bring a toothbrush this time?” Sara winked.

Ava smiled and nodded, but inside she did a little somersault.

“See you soon.”

They ended the call, and Ava threw a fist in the air. Two nights in a row with Sara Lance. She wasn’t sure how she had gotten to be this lucky, but she damn sure wasn’t complaining.

She packed a small toiletries bag, slipped an olive green zip up over the black cami, and put her boots on. She put on a touch of makeup, finger combed her hair, checked to make sure the apartment was secure, and then dialed up her lover’s quarters on the Waverider.

She stepped through the time portal and ran smack into someone else.

“Oh, hey, Ava.” Zari Tomaz was clearly surprised to see her.

Given that Ava had expected to arrive in the Captain’s quarters and given that Sara had told her the team was out, the feeling was mutual.

Ava shifted her overnight bag behind her back so Zari wouldn’t see it.

“Hey, Zari.”

“Are you looking for the Captain?”

Ava cleared her throat a little and tried to assume the Agent Sharpe position. “Yes, I have some…questions about the Bahamas mission...We need to compare notes.”

“Ah. The last time I saw her she was in the galley, looking for a lighter.”

“A lighter?” Ava was confused.

“Yeah, I’ve learned not to ask.”

“Probably best that way.”

“Well, it was nice to see you. Love the top, by the way,” Zari complimented her.

“Thanks.”

“Back to the engine room.” She mock-saluted Ava with the donut in her hand. “Make a note, Ava: Time travel and the Bermuda Triangle do not mix.”

“So I’ve heard,” Ava replied, sardonically.

“Have a good one.” Zari waved over the shoulder as she headed off to the engine room.

Ava moved through the halls, relieved to hear only the hum of the Waverider floating through the temporal stream. Maybe the rest of the Legends really were off doing other things.

She rounded the corner into the galley and was surprised to be met with candlelight.

“Gideon?” Sara’s voice called out.

“Yes, Captain.”

Ava heard several doors close in rapid succession. She glanced out the entryway, noting that the access points to the kitchen and dining area were now sealed off.

“What are you going to do if one of them wants a snack?” she inquired.

Sara grinned mischievously. “They’ll just have to starve.”

“That doesn’t seem very nice, Miss Lance.”

“Oh, I can be _very_ nice, but I don’t want us to be interrupted.” She held the seductive tone and pose for a few seconds and then chuckled.

Sara stepped over and took Ava’s overnight bag from her, setting it aside, and then she gently took her hand and led her to a small table set with candles and a simple yet delicious pasta meal.

They ate in companionable fashion, the conversation coming and going to a wide range of topics – Sara’s crossword puzzle habit and collection of fine whiskey, Ava’s love for renovation shows and healthy eating, their coworkers, their pasts.

Ava was especially enthralled to hear Sara’s animated recounting of some of the Legend’s previous missions. It gave her the opportunity to ask questions about why Sara had made choice A, B, or C, when Ava might have approached the mission using a totally different strategy.

Sara didn’t take these questions personally and heartily engaged in debate with her lover.

Unlike the stiffness and awkwardness of the previous evening’s “official date,” their banter was easy and disarming. Neither was worried about where this time together would lead because they knew, which eased the pressure a bit.

That’s not to say that Ava didn’t lose her train of thought in the middle of sentence more than once as she watched Sara licking sauce off her fork.

Or that she didn’t notice that they were touching in some way at all times.

Or that her mind was not trying to reassert itself with warnings about the inherent conflicts between her job and Sara’s.

Or that she did not keep fighting against the urge to just lean over and kiss Sara mid-sentence.

On the last she finally relented, gently grasping Sara’s neck and crushing her lips against hers. Sara chuckled into the kiss.

“If you didn’t want me talking about Jonah Hex, you could have just said so.” Ava immediately blushed, which made Sara laugh out loud.

Then they looked at each other for several long moments, dinner forgotten.

Sara stood and held out her hand. Ava allowed herself to be pulled up, and they walked arm in arm to the door, which slid open as they neared it.

When she turned her head to look back at the abandoned dishes, reluctant to leave behind a mess, Sara pulled her along. “Doing dishes is Ray’s thing.”

The walk from the galley to Sara’s quarters wasn’t that far, as she’d learned the night previous, but this walk was filled with a different kind of anticipation.

Now that Ava knew exactly what Sara looked like under that deliciously yummy sweater…

knew how extremely strong and flexible Sara was…

knew how agonizingly gentle and teasing her touch could be…

knew how the Captain tasted…

knew that there was so much more she wanted to explore and learn about the woman holding her hand…

she was more than ready to have Sara over her, under her, _inside_ her.


	3. Chapter 3

Being involved with Sara had been surprising thus far, to say the least.

Ava had tried not to let the contents of Sara’s file affect her view of the woman, but it was inevitable that some of that knowledge remained in the back of her mind.

Sara Lance was a womanizer. She’d seduced the Queen of France, half the village of Salem, and Guinevere. She’d only had one long-term relationship, with the daughter of Ra’s al Ghul, and before that had, had an affair with her sister’s boyfriend.

She was a deadly assassin. The Bureau didn’t have an exact body count for Ta-er al-Sahfer, but Ava suspected it was well into triple digits. Sara had been one of the Five, after all, so she was damned good at her job. Based on the file, Ra’s had trusted Sara with the most challenging assignments, rightly suspecting that there was little that could stop her.

But then Sara had just walked away, from her lover, from the League, from everything. The details were murky but apparently her last assignment had involved a child, and she had refused to continue, fully aware that her death was the punishment for leaving.

She’d returned to Star City to protect her family and had hooked back up with Oliver Queen. However, once again, Sara had eventually walked away from Oliver, from Team Arrow, and from her family to return to the League. Rip’s notes concluded that the Black Canary was simply trying to protect everyone she loved at considerable cost to herself.

But Sara had died. Well, Ava’s mentally corrected, she was assassinated by a friend. Then she was resurrected a year later, sans soul.

How could Sara have gone through these mind-bending events and become the calm, collected, brilliant Captain she was?

How could a woman haunted by darkness and death be so delightful and engaging?

Given her well-deserved reputation for loving and leaving well before dawn, how was Sara one of the most thoughtful, giving lovers she had ever had?

Her mind struggled to wrap around these discordant thoughts.

Sara was a conundrum that Ava had first wanted to understand as an adversary. When their interactions shifted toward something completely unexpected, she wanted to understand Sara better because she was fascinated by the woman.

First and foremost, in Ava’s mind, Sara Lance was a survivor. A woman whose strength of character had been forged in the harshest of fires.

Regardless of the past, the person laying beside her was a wickedly funny, smart, sexy as fuck woman who was every bit her equal in every way.

 _That_ was also new for Ava.

She had worked her way through Stanford _summa cum laude_ , joined the FBI Las Vegas field office as an intelligence analyst, and after excelling and advancing in that bureau for four years, had been approached by a man who claimed to head a secret federal agency no one had ever heard of, including her own superiors.

Given that she felt she had learned all she could from the FBI and given that she had just broken up with her girlfriend, Ava jumped at the opportunity to leave Vegas for a different mission.

The Assistant Director had then worked her way up the ladder at the Time Bureau, starting as a rookie in the second class to go through Rip’s time travel enforcement training regimen five years previously. Many of her fellow cadets, like her, were former law enforcement agents who relished the opportunity for a greater challenge.

Yet Ava had easily conquered every training requirement, graduating at the top of her class, which earned her classmates’ somewhat grudging admiration and Rip’s increased attention.

From that point on, she was assigned to Go Team One, the tip of the spear for dealing with time abnormalities. Over time, she became commander of that Go Team until within the last year Rip had determined that her specific talents, particularly her intelligence abilities, were desperately needed to help oversee the entire Bureau.

He and Director Bennet had promoted her out of field command. She still missed the days of being in the field full time, but, as Assistant Director, when a situation was particularly demanding, she was able to call on the best agents throughout the Bureau to function as her own, personal black ops go team.

When the Waverider had crashed, as anticipated, into Los Angeles in 2017, Ava and her team had worked for five days to repair the damage and eliminate all evidence/memory of the anomaly.

At the time, she had been extremely disappointed not to be standing beside Rip when he disbanded the so-called Legends.

It had amused her, however, when she found out that the great Sara Lance was reduced to working at Sink, Shower, and Stuff. Whenever Rip spoke of the woman, it grated on Ava because it was obvious that despite his mission to fix everything that his former team messed up, Director Hunter still valued and admired the Captain, even if she were completely reckless.

Now, having seen first-hand Sara’s actions for herself, Ava understood Rip’s admiration and respect.

Sara could be a loose cannon, but it was always with purpose, usually for the greater good and/or in trying to protect one of her teammates.

She was intense, resilient, and lethal…much like Ava herself.

Their recent friendship worked because each understood the responsibilities -- and the weight that came with those responsibilities -- of the other. They could appreciate each other’s opinions, question each other’s ideas, and push the other to the limit because of the mutual respect that had been earned between them.

Ava had never had someone challenge her in the way Captain Lance did. Had never seen someone so intent on standing up for what was morally right, even if it meant risking her time ship, her crew, and herself. Had never been associated with someone so careless of the rules yet so passionate about saving the day through whatever means necessary.

Ava had also never blinked in a confrontation until Sara had aimed the Waverider directly at the Mothership. No one on her crew had been more surprised than Ava herself that she had jumped the Time Bureau vessel away at the last second.

As she explained to Rip and Bennet in her later debriefing, she had somehow known that Sara absolutely would not relent and that it was in all of their best interests for Ava and her agents to live to fight another day, even if that meant allowing the fugitive Legends to escape.

These several months later, Ava’s respect for the Legend’s Captain had morphed into genuine friendship and then into something more. Something exciting, exhilarating but also scary.

It was desire, yes, but she didn’t just want to be the woman’s occasional lover. Sara Lance was special, touching a part of her that had never been seen, much less reached before.

Whatever this was between them was real and palpable. Ava didn’t know exactly what “it” was, what they were to each other, yet, and it was too early in their intimate relationship to let her mind or her heart wander too far down that road.

Having had a second, more drawn out evening of passion with Sara, however, she knew that she wanted to pursue this as far as she possibly could.

She couldn’t stop smiling having woken up limbs entangled with the former assassin for a second morning in a row.

“Your brain is making mine hurt.” Ava was startled out of her reverie by the voice beside her.

“What?” she replied.

“You are thinking so loud you woke me up.” Sara blinked open her ice blue eyes and glanced up at her. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” Ava said too quickly. She noted the hint of hurt that passed through Sara’s eyes before it disappeared, and the woman subtly shifted away from her.

“Wait…” Sara stopped moving and looked back at her expectantly. “I- I was thinking how great it was to wake up with you again,” she admitted, surprisingly shy.

Sara shifted back toward her.

“You are dangerous, Sara,” Ava continued.

“What, me? Dangerous?” Sara playfully scoffed and pointed at her own chest while raising her eyebrow.

“Yeah.” Ava sighed and then looked down.

She felt a soft, strong hand cup her cheek and lift her head so they were eye to eye, laying together, bodies touching along Ava’s full length.

“How am I a danger to you, Ava?” Sara asked, all joking gone.

Ava hesitated to answer for a moment, not wanting to screw things up or put pressure on her that might push her away. Sara calmly, intently held her gaze, so while she was nervous, she also felt safer than she had in a long time.

“Because I could get used to this.”

The silence in the room suddenly charged, Ava refused to look away. She needed Sara to see in her eyes what she wasn’t sure she even knew how to say yet – that they fit…just exactly so…together. That her heart was in play now, even if she was not sure when or how that had happened. That her time with Sara was no casual fling.

Sara looked at her, looked through her. Ava held her breath.

And then she smiled, and Ava let out the breath she’d been holding.

“Me too.” Sara pulled her close and wrapped her arms around her tightly. “I’m really glad you came over last night.”

“Yeah. You are much more fun than a House Hunter’s marathon,” Ava joked.

“I would hope so,” Sara laughed, half indignantly, and then tickled her.

Ava howled, and Sara’s eyes turned predatory.

“Agent Sharpe…are you ticklish?”

“What? No. No!”

But it was too late. Sara climbed on top of her, tickling her ribs repeatedly until she was out of breath and begging for mercy.

That mercy turned tickling touches into caresses, and Ava’s pleas changed from begging her to stop to begging Sara to please, _please_ continue.


	4. Chapter 4

It was a delightful Sunday morning in bed, but after her stomach had growled for the third time, Sara had insisted they needed to feed her before the monster clearly trapped inside her broke free.

They strolled into the kitchen and made, then ate breakfast side by side, not having eyes for much of anything other than each other, frequently stealing touches, brief kisses, and knowing looks.

Zari’s unwelcome entrance, while awkward and humorous, had broken the spell. Yep, now the Legends would know she and Sara were sleeping together.

Ava did not have long to ponder that development before Gary contacted Sara and was surprised to see his boss sharing a casual breakfast alongside Zari and the Captain.

To avoid further discomfort, she immediately slid into Assistant Director mode and focused on the task at hand. Ray was missing, and she needed to help Sara find him.

Over the next few hours, Ava was a little surprised at how seamlessly they worked in concert with each other.

Even though she did not wish for Rip to know, yet, why she was working at a console alongside the Captain – she knew she’d need to explain to Sara later her hasty, patently false explanation of her presence to Rip – she was happy just to be with Sara and to be able to help Sara using her own resources and position.

Tasking her own agents with helping track Ray seemed like an obvious choice. It was in the Bureau’s best interest to contain the Darkhs. If doing so also helped her lover, then no one could fault Ava for making that choice.

Keeping her thoughts strictly on mission was challenging, though. Sara was clearly worried, and Ava wanted to make it better, wanted to reassure her that everything would work out.

She had never before kissed a lover in the middle of a mission while in her uniform and serving in an official capacity. _Ever._

Her ex had accused her of becoming a robot once on the clock – all business and no emotion. The relationship always came last, far behind the job. That claim was true; it was one of the many reasons she hadn’t dated anyone seriously since then.

Seeing Sara in turmoil, however, shredded that façade, that divide between personal and professional as if it were tissue paper.

When the Captain had reached for her, Ava never hesitated to kiss her, regardless of who might stroll through the Waverider bridge at the time. Kissing and then holding Sara for a few minutes seemed to be the most natural thing in the world for her, despite the circumstances or context.

Though she had her game face firmly back in place as she and Rip were departing the ship after the team had successfully recovered Ray, Ava could not help but smile when Sara asked her to call.

As if anything could stop her from doing so.

Something about Sara calling her “Director Sharpe” filled her with an immediate, red-hot, needy desire.

They would definitely be exploring _that_ later.

When Rip caught her admiringly watch her lover walk away, she chose not to be embarrassed. She was proud of Sara, proud of who she was, of who they were together.

Ava knew better than to believe that there would be no bumps in the coming road. 

With the demands of their respective jobs and with the kind of work they did, building and keeping a healthy relationship – if that was something Sara even wanted – would be a challenge, especially now with Ava’s unexpected promotion.

But she was willing to gamble most everything she had that Sara Lance was worth the risk. Sara was special, and Ava wanted to know what life beside her was like for however long she had that opportunity.

She stepped through the portal, back to Bureau headquarters, firmly focused on the work ahead of her.

Yet some part of her stayed behind, walking through the halls of the Waverider, joking with Wally, checking in on Zari’s progress with the engine repairs, and preparing for the next mission.

Happy. Content. Excited for the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long, rambling thought process for this story: 
> 
> Having watched these episodes probably more times than I should admit, I noticed that the writers seem to suggest that the morning we see at the outset of 3.13 is not the first morning after their date. For example, Zari indicates she has seen Ava in that 3.13 outfit the previous day, but the day we see in 3.12 shows us Ava in her date dress and her pantsuit. If we assume they immediately went to Sara's bedroom at the end of 3.12, then when/how did Zari see Ava "yesterday" in the green top outfit? Also, the kitchen would likely not be filled with dirty dishes after just the few evening hours post mission. Zari and Sara admit that Ray has been gone long enough that they should have noted his absence, which doesn't make sense if he's only been away from the ship overnight. Thus, it makes more sense in my mind that 3.13 begins with the morning after their second night together. This story is the result of that line of thinking.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed!


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